No. 6.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER from Swan River, dated 27th January, 1833.
Land increases in value daily on the Swan; a grant that the owner would have readily sold for 25l. ready money, a twelvemonth ago, will now fetch 100l.; indeed, I do not know a better war of investing a small sum of money, than in land on the Swan: a grant I gave 200l. for, I could let, for grazing sheep, at 20l. per annum, and your land is improving all the time. People who had grants on the Swan, in the earlier period of the colony, thinking them worthless, literally gave them up, conceiving, that as land was given away, and no one appeared to derive any benefit from the culture, or rather never attempted such culture, that it was useless to retain them; now, however, that they see the soil producing wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, turnips, carrots, Indian corn, &c. &c. in the greatest profusion, they are ready to purchase the very grants they previously gave away.
There are only two sorts of people who can get on here, the one with a capital, the other the labouring man, who gets a three acre grant, cultivates it two days in the week, and works out the other four days, supporting himself, and bringing his grant into cultivation. You have, I suppose, heard dreadful accounts of the nature of the soil, and with some show of reason, probably, as Fremantle, the great emporium of our trade is the vilest place on earth—nothing, in fact, but a huge mass of white sand; and the country, within two or three miles, partakes of the same valuable qualities; and there are many who pretend to give a description of the colony, who have never been more than an hour's walk into the interior. The land on the banks of the Swan, commencing at Perth, is decidedly good, up to the hills; the Canning, I believe, is the same. This good land, I must tell you, though, only extends half a mile to a mile back, from the banks of the rivers, when you come to light sandy soil, covered with brushwood and worthless trees;
